The Secrets That We Keep
by StoryQuipster
Summary: Actually, he's pretty sure the only reason they're friends is because he can handle her and she can handle him, and not many people have ever bothered.


**The Secrets That We Keep**

* * *

So, it's her birthday today.

And look, it's not like it's a big deal or whatever. He could just go to the nearest store and buy her a keychain or a slice of cake or something. But the thing is, he doesn't want to just give her something for the sake of giving her something. Not this year. He doesn't like to say it much, but he and Juvia are sort of friends. They talk and stuff (sometimes) and she looks out for him (all the time). She cleans his ass up whenever he's hungover or drunk, force feeds medicine into his mouth when he's sick and let's him eat all of her metal forks and chopsticks and spoons without bitching about it.

And she never forgets to give him shit for his birthday. Last time, it was a guitar and she baked him a cake that was stuffed with bits of screws and iron bars. She gave the stuff to him outside of the guild of course. As if the two of them would actually be stupid enough to show everyone else that they like, actually care about each other or whatever.

They have a reputation to uphold.

So yeah, she's kind of his...whatever. They look out for each other, okay?

Anyways, for her birthday, he usually just hauls her ass to the nearest restaurant, treats her to a big-ass dinner and gives her an umbrella. But then he went over to her apartment earlier in the morning and she was in the middle of bitching about how people only ever give her umbrellas during her birthday. She got all flustered when she found out that he was there and heard the entirety of her bitch-rant. She spent at least thirty minutes apologizing to him and telling him that she likes his gifts and that she doesn't care that he keeps giving her umbrellas.

He told her to shut up and to not apologize because he doesn't give a fuck about what she thinks of his presents.

(Even though it always takes him half a day to pick them out and they always cost him fifteen jewels. Whatever. But seriously. Who doesn't like umbrellas? They're practical and handy, especially in her situation.)

When she doesn't stop apologizing to him and telling him that she feels really bad for hurting his feelings (fuck that noise—as if he has any), he stomps out of her apartment and says, "Stop yammering, would you? And you better not be late tonight. You know how I don't like to be kept waiting!"

"Waaah! But Gajeel-kun! You still haven't forgiven Juvia!" she whines as she latches herself unto his back.

"Ow!" Gajeel says as he tries to shake Juvia off. "Get off me, woman! Didn't I just tell you that I don't care!?"

"But Juvia knows that you do!"

"No, I don't!"

"Gajeel-kun!"

"If you don't get off me, I will nail you to a tree!"

Damn, she's one crazy bitch. Sometimes, he wonders how they ever even became friends.

* * *

He decides to keep the umbrella he had been planning on giving her for himself. He isn't doing it so he can buy another present for her, okay? He just happens to really need a new umbrella, especially since his last one is starting to get a little torn and frayed.

So there.

Anyways, he's trying really hard to look as inconspicuous as possible. The bright, pastel colors of the shop are making him nauseous and the campy, cheerful music is making him feel weird and twitchy. He had been planning on just picking up the cheapest one and leaving but some asshole in a sweater vest pops up before he can get a better look at the prices.

"May I help you sir?" he politely asks.

He pauses in contemplation for a moment. Finally, he says, "Yeah. Which one is the cheapest?"

His smile widens. "May I ask who you are shopping for? I could help you pick out the perfect—''

Gajeel dismissively waves his hand. "Just show me which one is the cheapest. It's not a big deal. It's just a birthday present."

"For your girlfriend I presume?" he says. "Because if so, buying her the cheapest one won't get you any favors..."

Gajeel nearly spasms at the thought. "What the fuck? No! Just..._no_. The present is for my _nakama_ you idiot!"

"Ah. I see," he says although his eyes are still narrowed in suspicion.

Gajeel glares at him. "Are you going to show me which one is the cheapest or what?"

The man jumps, afraid and slowly backs away from Gajeel. "Uh yes, of course sir but..."

"Gajeel?"

He stiffens in his place.

Fuck.

He knows that voice.

He slowly turns around and tries to maintain whatever is left of his dignity. He glares at one of his guild mates and gruffly says, "Chong."

Chong smirks at him. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"None of your damned business," he retorts.

Chong leans against the doorframe. "I'm just curious. Why is the fiercesome Gajeel Redfox, dreaded Iron Dragon Slayer, in a _Stuffed Toy Shop_?"

Damn it. Someday, he swears that he's going to kill that smug son of a bitch.

But right now, he really needs to come up with a decent excuse. He can't just say that he's here because he's trying to find a present for Juvia. She'll kill him if he does that.

See, Juvia has a thing for..._cutesy_ shit. Like seriously. The woman's apartment is filled with stuffed toys and she has pictures of baby animals on her walls. But nobody knows about that but him. _Nobody _can ever know but him. Phantom Lord is pretty cutthroat and all of the assholes in there are sleazy bastards. He and Juvia worked hard to make sure that they were feared and respected—both of them honed personas that ensured that.

Without fear or respect, you are nothing in Phantom Lord.

Everyone in the guild knows Juvia as the ame-onna, the dreaded water mage who is invulnerable to almost anything. Where she goes, wherever the rain falls, despair is sure to follow. She has a reputation in the guild for being cold, serious and deadly—rumors have been whispered about how she shows her enemies no mercy, how fearsome and terrible it is when one has to face her wrath. And she always carries herself with professional indifference; her mouth is always set into a tight line and her eyes always have a steely, sombre look. Aside from Gajeel (and occassionally members of the Element 4), she never interacts with anyone else unless she is required to.

She is elegant and shrouded in mystery and everyone regards her with jealousy, fear or honest curiosity.

He can only imagine what everyone will think of her if they find out that she's scared of lightning, likes cuddling baby animals, and sticks her tongue out whenever she sees string beans. Fuck, what's going to happen when they find out that he's here, in this fucking shop, trying to pick a present out for her? They'll probably think that he's some sort of sappy pussy.

"For your information, dumbass I'm on a...er...I'm on a mission. Yes. That's it. I'm on a mission," Gajeel waspishly responds.

"In a Stuffed Toy Shop?" Chong asks, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Yeah, fuckwit. One of the toys here are cursed and I'm trying to weed it out," he confidently answers.

The man in the sweater vest glares at him and indignantly sputters, "_I beg your pardon_! We do not sell cursed items here—''

Chong raises a brow at him. "What kind of curse?"

"Whoever touches it loses his junk," he answers, saying the first thing that comes out of his head.

"What kind of curse is that?" Chong still sounds skeptical.

"Why the fuck should I know? I don't make up these curses."

The man cuts in, "I'd just like to say that we most certainly do not sell items that cause the disappearance of men's—''

"You want to know what I think?"

"No."

"I think you're lying."

"You want to know what I think?"

"What? Are you thinking about which stuffed toy would look best with your pink curtains?" Chong says in a mocking, baby voice.

Gajeel then transforms his arm into an iron shadow dragon's club and before anyone can say anything else, he hits Chong directly on the groin. Chong gives a loud, girlish squeal as he is propelled towards a shelf full of stuffed cats. "I think that you're going to lose your manhood, cursed stuffed toy or not! If word of this ever gets out, I will fucking _kill_ you, you hear me, you bastard!?"

The man in the sweater vest clutches at his hair in frustration and screeches, "I spent hours arranging those cats by size!"

Gajeel rounds up on the man and grabs him by the scruff of his collar. The man gulps.

He leans in closer and hisses, "Now where the fuck is your cheapest and—''

He pauses and his tone audibly drops, "—_cutest_ stuffed toy?"

The man nervously nods his head. "I'll just go and get it."

"Good. Now hurry up. I just want to get this whole thing over with," Gajeel gruffly says as he unceremoniously drops the man on the floor.

* * *

He just can't catch a break.

When he gets to the restaurant where he's supposed to meet up with Juvia, Sol, Aria and Totomaru are already there, gathered around her table. He can tell that Juvia is mildly annoyed since her nose is twitching. But her face remains as polite and as impassive as ever, her mouth folded into a straight line and her eyes cool and collected.

"_Non non non_. You must open mine first Juvia-sama," Sol says as he obnoxiously shoves his gift into her hands.

Totomaru and Aria complain loudly but Juvia sighs and stiffly nods her head. "Very well, Monsieur Sol. Juvia will open yours first."

She quickly unwraps it and looks up, her voice sounding simultaneously annoyed and amused, "Ah. An umbrella. Just what Juvia needed."

Sol gives her an imperious nod of his head as he adjusts his monocle. "Aha! I knew you would like it! My monocle told me so!"

"Open mine!" Totomaru interjects.

Aria sniffles. "But I want her to open mine first."

"No, trust me she'll like mine better—''

Arai sighs and slumps in his seat. "How _sorrowful_. I so wanted Juvia-san to open my gift first—''

"Hey! What are you fucktards doing here?" Gajeel says as he stomps over towards them.

"Salut, Gajeel-sama. We're here to here to celebrate Juvia-sama's birthday!" Sol says.

Gajeel rolls his eyes. "Well, whatever. But I'm not paying for any of you."

Juvia has already unwrapped Totomaru's gift and her face is twisted into a grimace. "You bought Juvia..._underwear_?"

Totomaru nods and leers at her. "Yes, Juvia-san. We were all wondering if you wore anything under your coat so I decided to buy you some panties just in case you didn't."

Juvia's jaw twitches and her eyes visibly darken. Her voice is calm when she says it but there is palpable anger in her eyes, "You dare assume that Juvia doesn't wear anything underneath her coat!? _Juvia is not a slut_!"

Totomaru cringes and makes a placating gesture with his hands. "I swear, Sol was the one who started it!"

Gajeel starts snickering at his discomfort.

Sol quickly shakes his head. "_Non non non."_

"Don't kill me, ame-onna," Totomaru nervously sputters. "I was just messing around."

"How do you even know Juvia's bra size?"

"Eh—''

"You have been staring at Juvia's breasts?" Juvia says it in a relatively calm voice. But from above them, Gajeel can hear the rain pelting against the roof harder.

Aria just sighs and says, "_Sorrowful_."

"Look. Gajeel has a gift. Why don't you open his?" Totomaru says in an attempt to distract Juvia.

Gajeel shakes his head. "No way. She's not opening this until you fuckers leave."

Juvia's attention is momentarily diverted from Totomaru. She looks at Gajeel and cocks her head to the side. "Why can't Juvia open it until she is alone with Gajeel-kun?"

Totomaru suddenly becomes interested. "Yeah. Why can't she open it Gajeel?"

"What could your present possibly be? Surely, it's not better than mine," Sol haughtily interjects.

Aria sighs, "_Sorrowful_."

"It doesn't look like another umbrella," Totomaru notes.

"Perhaps he's giving her underwear too," Sol suggests.

Gajeel flushes. "What? _No_!"

"Juvia-san, please open my gift," Aria says in a mournful voice.

"Juvia has had enough of your gifts! Juvia wants to open Gajeel-kun's gift first!" Juvia declares.

"No! You can't!" Gajeel says, panicked.

Everyone stares at him in confusion.

"Why not?" Juvia says with a frown.

Gajeel nervously squirms in his place. "Well...ugh...you see—''

Fuck. How can he make this woman see that unwrapping his stupid gift in front everyone right how would totally fuck their reputations up?

To his horror, Juvia leans forward and starts unwrapping his gift. Everyone suddenly leans in, interested. Oh, god. He needs to think of a distraction. Maybe he can punch Totomaru. But no, the bastard is a little too far from his reach and Juvia is blocking his way—

"Aaaaahhhhh!"

Everyone falls backwards as Juvia gives a high-pitched, girlish, absolutely, _un-Juvia-like_ scream.

"A puppy! You got Juvia a puppy, Gajeel-kun! So kawaii!" Juvia squeals as she holds the stuffed toy close to her chest.

A vein pops out of Gajeel's forehead as Totomaru, Aria and Sol all look at Juvia in complete confusion (and horror).

"Is she...is she actually smiling?" Totomaru says.

"Impossible! The ame-onna never smiles!" Sol declares.

"She sounds so happy!" Aria adds.

"She's actually cuddling the puppy! She's _cuddling _the puppy!" Totomaru says.

"Impossible! Juvia of the Deep does not cuddle!" Sol interjects.

"And to think I was actually afraid of her!" Totomaru says.

"She's quite the softie, after all," Sol says.

"And Gajeel! Can you believe that he actually bought her something—''

"_Everybody shut up_!" Gajeel explodes.

Everyone lulls into a silence. Juvia stops cuddling her stuffed puppy.

Gajeel loudly clears his throat and gives her a pointed stare. Juvia blinks at him twice, in confusion before finally realizing what she is doing.

She quickly schools her features so that she looks impassive and indifferent again.

"Gajeel-kun," Juvia says in a low, angry voice.

He folds his arms and glares back at her. "What?"

She holds the puppy out. "Is this your idea of a joke!? Insulting Juvia by giving her something so...so..._cute_ for her birthday!?"

Totomaru and everyone suddenly huddle together in fear.

Gajeel looks at her, completely unfazed. He deadpans, "What're you going to do about it, Shrimp?"

She stomps over towards him and the two of them glare at each other for a few seconds. Then, to everyone's shock, Juvia brings her knee up to kick him on the groin. He doubles over in pain and tries to stifle a groan as she starts beating the living shit out of him with the stuffed puppy.

"This will teach you to not undermine Juvia's strength and power by daring to give her a stuffed animal!" Juvia explodes.

"Ow! Bitch!" Gajeel hisses under his breath. He whispers, "Calm down will you, woman? And don't ruin the damned thing! That cost me half my fucking savings!"

"Sorry, Gajeel-kun. But Juvia has to make sure that nobody thinks she's soft," Juvia whispers back.

"I think you already proved your point!" Gajeel mumbles.

Damn, this woman can hit. And it's pretty impressive considering that she's whacking him with a stuffed animal.

He smiles a little and tries to pretend that he's annoyed with her. But really, he doesn't mind. He knows how tough Phantom Lord can be—people are only in here for the money and everyone's always trying to one-up each other. He and Juvia are pretty high up on the guild hierarchy but even the smallest sign of weakness can cause them to lose hold of the fragile positions they have. It's exhausting, having to keep up with act.

Not for him, per se. He acts like an asshole ninety-nine percent of the time.

But he knows that Juvia isn't really like this. She puts up an apathetic, 'I-don't-give-a-fuck' front but she cares too much about everything and everyone (even those assholes in Element 4). She cries whenever they have to go on missions that involve hurting innocent people and she hates it whenever he becomes too violent and she hugs him (even when he doesn't want her to) when he's upset. It's harder for her to act this way and he knows how much it hurts her sometimes.

(Inwardly, he wishes that there will come a time and place that Juvia will be able to be herself—her true self—without worrying about how other people will think of her.)

"Waaah! Gajeel-kun! You still haven't forgiven Juvia for beating you up!" she whines as she latches herself unto his back as they start walking back to her apartment.

"Ow! And you didn't beat me up!"

"But—''

Gajeel tries to shake Juvia off. "Get off me, woman! Didn't I tell you that I don't care!?"

"But Juvia knows that you do!"

"No, I don't!"

"Gajeel-kun!"

"If you don't get off me, I will nail you to a tree!"

She gets off him. Then she touches his wrist and tugs at it.

He sighs, annoyed.

"What?"

"Juvia thinks Gajeel-kun's gift is the best."

"Even better than the underwear Tutu bought you?"

"Don't talk to Juvia about that pervert!" she snaps. She grins at him. "But really, Gajeel-kun. Juvia is happy with your gift."

"Yeah, whatever," Gajeel says as he tries to hide the smile on his face.

"Gajeel-kun is happy that Juvia likes his gift!" she says as she pokes him on the arm.

"No, I'm not! I'm just happy that you have finally stopped talking!"

"Did Gajeel-kun pick this out himself!?"

"Shut up, Juvia!" her irately retorts. She stops talking but she has this knowing, happy smile on his face.

Okay, fine. So he's sort of happy that she likes his gift.

Actually, he's pretty sure the only reason they're friends is because he can handle her and she can handle him, and not many people have ever bothered.

She is a pretty crazy bitch after all.

* * *

**Author's Note: **I'm not even going to say much because this is really just shameless ridiculousness. This was originally going to be a Gruvia fic, but it somehow morphed into a Gajeel/Juvia bro fic. The two of them are totally my BrOTP :)

I just found it really interesting that Juvia refers to Gajeel as kun. As far I know (so correct me if I am wrong), kun is used to address boys who you are closer or more familiar with. And to think that Juvia actually went out of her way to get Gajeel into Fairy Tail. It's just a bit of a shame though that their friendship isn't shown much in the manga.

When I first read the part where Juvia shows up, I found it really hilarious that her personality did a complete 180 so quickly. It made me think about how difficult it must've been hiding her crazy-ass personality in Phantom Lord xD

I haven't finished reading everything yet but so far Juvia is definitely one of my favorite characters. And Gruvia is really, really hilarious. I haven't formed a proper opinion about this ship (because so far, from what I've read, the Gruvia ship is pretty much just used for comic relief—if it gets better, please tell me :) ) but when I do, maybe I'll write a oneshot about them or something.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading this!


End file.
